While the campaign against the “New Haredim” in the ultra Orthodox neighborhoods is becoming an all out war, according to the website Kikar hashabbat, the reality on the ground is a great deal calmer and saner, says Haredi journalist Rabbi Israel Gelis.

The “New Haredim” are People inside the Haredi world who opt to serve in the IDF and go to work or attend university, rather than stay and learn in yeshivas and kolelim.

The more extreme in the Haredi camp are conducting an ever heating war against the government’s plan to enlist Haredim in the military, as well as alter yeshiva curricula to include Math and English and to encourage Haredim to enter the job market—and those Haredim who appear to comply with the “decrees’ are being marked as public enemies.

Last Thursday, the tires of a car belonging to Jacob Wieder, head of the Haredi Dept. in the Likud party, were cut, and the car was covered with posters vilifying the Haredim who go to work for “the damage you’re causing Haredi society.”

Wieder, who filed a complaint with the police, told Kikar Hashabbat: “I call on public functionaries to take care of this nasty phenomenon.”

Wieder added: “The violence of individuals will not in the least detract from our activities, I have no doubt that these are the fruits of the wild incitement that’s currently overwhelming the Haredi streets.”

Weider said he was horrified by the language of the attacks, which likens the gainfully employed Haredim to “bacteria and viruses and air pollutants,” and said they just had to be stopped.

Wieder warned that the phenomenon would worsen and result in physical injury to people. “Today it’s me, tomorrow it will be someone else—we have to end this violence.”

Two weeks ago, according to Kikar Hashabbat, a Haredi soldier, resident of Bnei Brak, received a threatening letter regarding his military service. The letter threatened a campaign against the soldier if he did not leave the military and remove the uniform which the letter called “impure.”

The letter concluded with a threat against the soldier’s life, and was signed, bizarrely enough, “The Association of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in B’nei B’rak, Officer of the Rebellion.”

The soldier responded to the threatening letter with his own published letter, in which he declared: “I am proud to have been serving in the IDF for two weeks now, while remaining no less Haredi, Jewish and observant than any of my Haredi friends.”

Rabbi Israel Gelis

Veteran Haredi journalist and radio host Rabbi Israel Gelis told The Jewish Press that these extremist actions in the Haredi community are committed by “less than a minyan” of young men with too much time on their hands.

Gelis blames the media for accentuating the negative and violent acts of a very small minority, over the mature and calm behavior of the vast majority of Haredim. “It’s like the Women of the Wall incident,” on the first of the month of Sivan, he says, “when thousands of women stood in quiet prayer and all they showed on TV were the few guys throwing water bottles, cursing, and clashing with police.”

As to the cut tires and the letter to the soldier, Gelis says it’s the same, very few crazies. “There’s no such thing as a hostile atmosphere in the Haredi street against those who serve in the Army,” he says.

According to Gelis, the integration of Haredim in the Israeli society is far more advanced than the public at large understands. More than 20 thousand Haredim are currently attending universities and colleges in Israel, he says.

“The Belzer Rebbe has started an employment agency for Belzer chassidim,” Gelis revealed. “The Rebbe sends there any young man he knows is not up for learning. Let him find a job.” According to Gelis, these men receive core curriculum education that matches the needs of their employers. The classes are funded by the Joint.

Last Thursday, thousands of Haredim protested in Jerusalem against plans to enlist Haredi men into the military. Between 25 and 35 thousand protesters gathered outside the military draft bureau to hear rabbis warn that army service would irreparably harm their way of life.

About the Author:Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. He has published Dancing and Crying, a colorful and intimate portrait of the last two years in the life of the late Lubavitch Rebbe, (in Hebrew), and
two fun books in English: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption, and How Would God REALLY Vote.

If you don't see your comment after publishing it, refresh the page.

Our comments section is intended for meaningful responses and debates in a civilized manner. We ask that you respect the fact that we are a religious Jewish website and avoid inappropriate language at all cost.

If you promote any foreign religions, gods or messiahs, lies about Israel, anti-Semitism, or advocate violence (except against terrorists), your permission to comment may be revoked.

The Histadrut national labor union and the Federation of Israeli Employers have agreed to raise the minimum wage to 5,300 shekels ($1,334) by 2017, approximately half the average salary in Israel. The employers and the union previously agreed to a three-stage hike in the minimum wage. The latest agreement adds a fourth stage whole pegging […]

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continued to lash out at a possible “bad deal” with Iran Monday and said, “The agreement being formulated in Lausanne sends a message that there is no price for aggression and on the contrary – that Iran’s aggression is to be rewarded.” Netanyahu said in a statement: The moderate and responsible […]

A Jerusalem woman is trying to hold on to her umbrella while withdrawing some cash at a Meah Shearim ATM, Sunday, March 9, 2014. The rain appeared out of the blue (which is how rain should), after a warm week that started to feel like summer. Well, it don’t feel like summer no more. Last […]

Here’s the Israeli Navy boat INS Hanit arriving in Eilat on Saturday, March 8, 2014, after capturing the Klos C, which was carrying dozens of advanced Iranian-supplied weapons made in Syria and intended for Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip. Here’s Israeli Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ram Rotberg speaking with the INS Hanit soldiers in […]

Pat Condell has a new video out, so, sit back, have fun. By the way, Message to Offended Muslims should not be confused with Message to Off Handed Muslims. Also, I’d love to hear what he has to say about Haredim.

The description that came with this picture says: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with American actor Bette Midler during an event at the house of Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan in Hollywood on March 6, 2014. But Bette Midler is not really an actor, she’s a singer who made movies for the LGBT community and […]

An Israeli female soldier (because they’re better at removing babies from their homes) evacuates a baby from a settlement in Judea and Samaria some time in the recent past. I’m thinking, if the baby was angry enough, couldn’t he evacuate in return, right there in her arms? Imagine the same picture, except with a settler […]